Representative Mark Wheatley Contact information

Mark Archuleta Wheatley is a Democratic member of the Utah State House of Representatives, representing the 35th District since 2004. He resides in Murray, Utah, with his wife Josie. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Westminster College in Salt Lake City.

Wheatley was first elected on November 2, 2004. In 2012, he encouraged his wife, Josie Valdez, to run for the State Senate after the incumbent senator retired. Had she won, it would have been the first time in Utah history that a husband and wife served together in the legislature. However, Valdez lost to Republican Brian Shiozawa.

During the 2016 general session, Wheatley served on the Business, Economic Development, and Labor Appropriations Subcommittee, the Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee, the House Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee, and the House Judiciary Committee. In the 2022 general session, he served on the Administrative Rules Review Committee, the Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee, the House Business and Labor Committee, the House Ethics Committee, and the House Judiciary Committee.

In 2022, Wheatley sponsored a bill that would have required vehicles to pass a muffler inspection as a prerequisite for registration. The bill failed to pass on the House floor. In 2018, he sponsored a bill that would prevent the Attorney General and other high-level elected officials in Utah from campaign fundraising during the legislative session. The bill passed unanimously in the Legislature and was signed by the Governor into law. In 2017, he sponsored a bill that would allow employees with discrimination claims to seek civil lawsuits and action through the state court system, and not rely solely on the Utah Antidiscrimination and Labor Division.

In 2018, Wheatley wrote an opinion editorial praising Rep. Rob Bishop for supporting reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. In the 2014 elections, Wheatley was unopposed in the Democratic convention and won the general election against Republican Eileen Lentz and Libertarian Chelsea Travis with 3,202 votes (63.7%).